ICC Note: The Washington Post reports from the Somali-border town in Mandera Kenya that dozens of ethnic Somalis are mysteriously disappearing from Kenya’s northeast in the fight against terror group al-Shabaab. The report includes chilling details about bodies found and a spirit of fear that pervades the Somali community that the government is out to eliminate them. In the fight against persecution and terror, we must not also become persecutors. ICC condemns any extra-judicial killings or arbitrary arrests of especially just because of their ethnic or religious background.
1/8/16 Mandera, Kenya (Washington Post) – A growing number of Kenya’s ethnic Somalis have vanished or turned up dead after being detained amid a crackdown by security forces on Islamist extremists.
The authorities have denied involvement, suggesting many of the deaths are at the hands of al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliate based in neighboring Somalia.
“We do everything that happens within the fight against terrorism within the confines of the law,” said Mwenda Njoka, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.
But parliamentarians representing the predominantly ethnic-Somali counties of northeast Kenya have said many of the victims are targets of a campaign by security forces.
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